Human Error
by Raiyo
Summary: sasunaru AU. hu·man er·ror n. a mistake made by a person rather than being caused by a poorly designed process or the malfunctioning of a machine such as a computer.Most of the accidents are attributable to human error. In Sasuke's world he was the error.
1. This Horrid World

This is an Au story. I don't think its very good but Its not too bad so I decided to post it. In this story Sasuke does not hate his brother for reasons that I will reveal later but all of sasuke's family is still dead. I hope you enjoy this story. Please read and review.

Disclaimer: I do not own naruto.

Warnings: Yaoi, maybe violence in later chapters

Pairings: Sasunaru, maybe Kakashi/iruka

_-------------------------------------------- _

Human Error

by: Harushi Karasunaki_  
_

_There where lights all around him. He didn't know where he was. Then a voice pierced through the silence._

"_Sasuke... we'll be together forever won't we?"_

_Sasuke looked over and did a double take. There, on the other side of this bright white room, was him._

"_Yeah, we will"_

_This other him was holding someone close to him but he could not make out the others face._

"_Good" _

_Then the shot rang out through the room and his world was filled with blood and pain._

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Uchiha Sasuke's alarm clock was blaring and clumsily he reached over to silence it. He never usually remembered his dreams and this last one was no different but he did remember a feeling of pain and a memory of blood but that was it. Sasuke slowly forced his eyes open only to shut them again when the bright light room the window hit them. Suddenly there was a sharp knock at his door and the sound of Kakashi's voice reached his ears. Kakashi had been looking out for him since his brother had left him in his care.

"Sasuke, breakfast is ready so get out here before it gets cold." Kakashi said sticking his head in the room.

"You cooked?" Sasuke asked somewhat apprehensively remembering the last time Kakashi had tried to cook.

"Hey, you didn't hear any explosions this time did you? Now get up or you'll be late for school"

"Yeah, yeah, just get out of here." he said somewhat exasperatedly.

"Ok, ok, just no fire balls this time"

"Yeah fine whatever just **get out**."

"You know, You really need to do something about that anger problem."

The door was closed just in time for where Kakashi's head had been just a second ago there was a small burn mark. Sasuke was a fire mage and could control fire. Which was part of the reason he was living with Kakashi. Kakashi had a lot of influence in the government and so if something were to happen Kakashi would be there for him.

Sasuke quickly got dressed in his blue shirt with the Uchiha clan symbol on the back and his Khaki pants and walked down stairs into the dining room. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting, as he looked at the food that that Kakashi had prepared but this certainly wasn't it. The food actually looked, well maybe appetizing wouldn't be the right word but it at least looked pallet able.

"What's the special occasion?" Sasuke asked as he took a bite of eggs.

"Here" Kakashi said as he passed Sasuke the newspaper

TWO MAGES ARESTED

Young Mages Edward(10) and Alphonse(9) Elric**(1)**  
were arrested yesterday on the grounds of being mages  
when they tried to make a ring of flowers for their mother.  
The president had this to say, " I am glad to know that  
this problem has been taken care of early. Right now it's  
flowers but later It could be nuclear bombs we must get  
them now while they are still young..." The execution  
date for the Elric brothers is set for late December.

Sasuke's hand gripped the newspaper tightly and the corners started to singe. This was one of the things that Kakashi was here to protect him from, The normal humans absolute hatred of mages. For any mage they caught the death penalty was certain no matter how old they where. A hand on his shoulder brought Sasuke back to the real world.

"Sasuke calm down, your eye's are turning red. Here, Sasuke take deep breaths."

"Its ok, Kakashi, I'm calm but damn, they really are idiots." Sasuke got up from the chair and pulled his backpack over his shoulder.

"Its time for me to get going now, school stars in 20 minuets."

"You want me to drive you?" Kakashi asked pulling out his keys

"Yeah lets go" Sasuke said as he exited the house and made his way to Kakashi's new shiny silver sports car. When they reached Sasuke's school Kakashi reached out an arm and stopped Sasuke from leaving

"What is it, Kakashi?" Sasuke asked

Kakashi sighed " Be careful Sasuke. Today will get better, trust me."

Sasuke nodded "Thanks Kakashi."

He got out of the car and made his way to his classroom. Maybe Kakashi was right. Maybe today wouldn't be so bad. Maybe today would be a good day.

"Watch out!"

Then Sasuke collided with a blond form and stared up into sky blue eyes.

"Watch where your going, teme!"

Or maybe not.

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1. Yeah I couldn't resist I needed someone. But no, this will not be a crossover fic.

Read and Review.


	2. Just Something

This is the second chapter. I'm not really sure Sasuke or Naruto are really in character but oh well i think it' pretty good. I hope you enjoy this story.

Oh, and I didn't mention this before but sasuke is 15 and in his second year of highschool.

Warnings: mild language, future violence, malemale parings

Disclaimer: I do not own naruto.

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Chapter 2: Something

By: Harushi Karasunaki

"Watch where you're going teme!"

Sasuke blinked, he wasn't used to being talked to like that. Over the years he had built up the reputation of being the best fighter in the area even without using his powers and, apart from the random scum he had to face some times, everyone respected him. He even had his own fan clubs, not that he wanted them of course. Come to think of it he hadn't seen this person around before so chances are he's either really new or really stupid.

'Or both' Sasuke thought as he looked the boy over ' it doesn't look like his elevator goes to the top floor.'

"Hey, why are you just siting there, you crazy or something?" The blond asked

A nerve in sasuke's forehead twitched and he raised an eyebrow.

"And who's fault is it that I ended up on the ground in the first place?" Sasuke asked irritably

"It's your own damn fault, you should have been watching where you were going!"

'This is getting annoying.' Sasuke thought as he massaged his temples in a futile attempt to rid him self of his already forming head ache. He was already late for class and he didn't want to be any later. Sasuke, unlike most other people his age, cared about his grades. ' Honestly, can he get any stupider."

"yeah, defiantly really stupid." Sasuke mumbled as he picked himself off the ground and brushed the dirt off his cloths.

"Hey! I heard that." The blond glared at him and raised a fist.

"Of course you did, you have ears don't you."

"Hey you want to start something!" He was yelling now and the pounding in Sasuke's skull was growing worse by the minute.

Sasuke sighed "Not this early in the morning and anyway don't you have somewhere you need to be?"

The blond's eyes seemed to widen by a fraction "Ah damn! I was supposed to be there 15 minets ago" He said as he ran off in the direction of the main office.

The pounding in Sasuke's head seemed to only get worse as the day went on and it now felt like his head was being hit with a sledge hammer. Repeatedly. He had been 20 minutes late for class and though the teachers in the school knew enough about his reputation not to mess with him too much he knew he had missed a large part of the lecture. On a normal day he would have caught up quickly but today with his head already feeling like it was about to split open it had been all he could do to just to pay attention to Kurenai's lecture. And now having Maito Gai as his English teacher didn't help at all. No, having Maito Gai as your English teacher Gave you a headache on even the best days. Right now Gai was going off about the power of youth and putting it into your writings so they could be youthful.

It was at times like these that sasuke wished he had brought his ear plugs. What he needed right now was some sort of distraction or at least some thing that would stop Gai from talking for even a few minutes. His wish was granted when the sound of flesh repeatedly pounding against the door echoed through the classroom.

"That must be the new student now." Gai said as he happily called 'come in'.

The door opened to reveal an orange clad blond, the same idiot he had run into this morning. Not exactly the something he had been hoping for.

"Everyone, this is Uzumaki Naruto. Please treat him well. Now tell everyone about your self." Gai said still with a smile. Sasuke breafly wondered if there was a time when Gai was ever not smiling.

"Well" The blond, now known as Naruto, said " My name is Uzumaki Naruto, you can just call me Naruto, and I just moved here from a remote town about 70 miles from here called Arashi**(1)** after an incident at my old school and I'm currently staying with my adopted father Umino Iruka."

The name of the town tugged at his memory but he brushed it off.

Gai chose that moment to speak up tears leaking out of his eyes "Oh, an orphan how sad! We should put orphans together so that they will be able to deal with your sadness better." Sasuke felt a feeling of dread. He was the only other orphan in the class but surely Gai wouldn't..."you can sit next to sasuke." he said pointing to sasuke where he sat in the back of the room.

Naruto nodded then saw who Gai was pointing to.

"You!"

Sasuke just rolled his eyes at the blonds outburst his headache long forgotten.

'I should have remembered, Kakashi is almost always wrong about stuff like this' Sasuke thought with a sigh.

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1. Yeah about the city I needed some where for Naruto to growup but it couldn't be Konoha because Sasuke and the others live in Konoha so I thought of using the 4th hokage's rumored name.

Read and review. tell me what you think of this. If I get reviews i will update faster.


	3. Reverie

Hey sorry this chapter took such a long time to come out. I have major writers block. In fact I don't even know where this story is headed any more so any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Just to clear some things up on the mage part there are a few elements earth, fire, water, wind, light, shadow, and lightening. Every mage has a specific element but depending on the person the powers change so in this story if I introdiced Gaara he would be a earth mage but would control sand and wouldn't be a earth mage like Sakura who controls plants. I hope this clears things up a bit.

the Italics signify a flashback

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

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Chapter 3 Reverie

by: Harushi Karasunaki

"you!"

Sasuke counted off in his head.

'3...2...1...now.'

There was a loud yell and all the female students in the class room pounced on him. At the head of the mob was Sakura who was now vigorously shaking Naruto. Despite the fact of her being an annoyance some times she was one of Sasuke's best friends. She was the top student in the class and, though Sasuke hated to admit it, better that him in a lot of academics. Sakura was, like him, a mage. She was a type of earth mage and could control plants. Sasuke remembered the 6 years ago when he had found out.

_Sasuke had been bored and finding nothing entertaining to do he had decided to take a walk. Normally the cherry blossoms would still be out but the winter that year had been a bad one and it was still too cold for the beautiful pink flowers to bloom. Sasuke shivered in his coat. Maybe taking a walk wasn't such a good idea after all. Sasuke walked along the street for a few more minutes before reaching a small park. Deciding this would be a good place to turn around sasuke began to walk back to his house when something caught his eye. In the middle of the park was a pink haired girl with a bright red ribbon in her hair._

_Sasuke was about to go over and say hello when he saw what she was doing. She was gazing intently at the cherry tree and the tree was beginning to flower and soon it was as bright and full of life as the Cherry trees normally would be in the spring. she smiled as she gazed up at the tree. Sasuke, who had been standing there watching the scene for quite some time, began clapping. _

_the girl quickly turned around, startled, and stood frozen to the spot. Sasuke, realizing his mistake, put up his hands up. _

" _Don't worry I'm not going to hurt you or turn you over to the police" Sasuke said calmly with a smile._

_she seemed to calm down a bit and but still looked at him cautiously._

" _Y-Your not?" She said not able to keep her nervousness out of her voice._

" _No, No why would I? After all..." he trailed off and put hand out and a small fire ball appeared in it and soon he was surrounded by about a dozen fireballs. _

"_I can do this."_

"_wow that is so cool!" _

They had been best friends ever since.

Sasuke shook his head to bring himself out of is reverie. Right now it seemed that Gai was trying to pry his fan club off of Naruto and it looked like he was succeeding. In a few short minutes Gai had gotten them off the blond and was now directing Naruto to his seat, right in front of Sasuke. Not that Sasuke cared but it would be a bit annoying.

Surprisingly The day had gone well after that and apart from the glare he had received from Naruto the blond hadn't done anything, he probably was too scared of getting another beating from his fan club. Sometimes those girls could be scary.

Sasuke never liked taking the bus so he walked home every day. His house was a bit of a distance from the school but it wasn't an impossible distance to walk  
When he got home Sasuke was greeted with the sight of Kakashi working intently on his laptop. Kakashi looked up from his computer when Sasuke set down at the table, a cup of tea in his hand.

" Yo, Sasuke how was school today?" Kakashi said with a smile on his face.

" It was fine. We have have a new student in our class."

" Oh, a new student. What is his name and what does he look like" Kakashi asked curiously

"His name is Uzumaki Naruto and he's blond and stupid looking" Sasuke said boredly

" And anyway.." Sasuke looked at Kakashi's computer " What are you working on now?"

" Oh just the usual. You know, get information on companies and their top people and find their weaknesses. They may not be the best people to work for but at least the clients are rich."

Kakashi was a professional hacker as well as being a lightening mage. He could control the electric signals in the computer and hack into just about any file. But even more scary was that he could control the electric signals in people and turn them into puppets. He also had a neat little mind reading trick.

"Well good luck with that." Sasuke said getting up from his chair and putting his empty mug in the sink.

" I'm going to my room."

Sasuke made his way up the stairs and to his room. He sat down at his desk in front of his computer and began to type. His eyes widening slightly at the information he found.

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Meanwhile Kakashi sighed and puffed on a cigarette. He leaned back in his chair and gazed at the too bright lights in the ceiling.

"Uzumaki, eh?"

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Sasuke is 9 in the flashback and this is before his family dies so I tryed to made sasuke a bit more innocent.

please read and review.


	4. Sorry

I don't really like how this chapter turned out but oh well. You don't get to find out what Sasuke saw on the computer in this chapter either. Though may be in the next chapter. But you do get a small very tiny bit of fluf.

I also have good news. Due to an unfortunate accident involving my science teacher, gunpowder, and fire science projects are now optional. I was going to have to have at least a 1 month hiatus on this story to work on my science project but now I can update about once a week. Well I hope so at least 8th grade sucks but I'll se what I can do. so Read and review.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

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Chapter 4: Sorry

By:Harushi Karasunaki

The blond wasn't there. The damn blond wasn't there!

'Honestly!' Sasuke thought with a sigh as he sat down in a table behind the school where he usually went to think. It was lunch hour

After reviewing the information her had checked up on last night he had decided it would be best to keep the dobe under watch. However, how could he do that if said dobe wasn't there.

'We can't have another episode like that or it'll be hard to do anything to help.'

"Ne, Sasuke what's the matter. You look a bit down."

Sasuke looked up. There, in front of him was Sakura.

"That new kid is one of us. I did a little digging last night and found a few things."

Sasuke fished around in his backpack for a minute before pulling out a small stack of papers.

"Here." he said handing them to Sakura.

Sakura took the papers and quickly skimmed through their contents.

"T-this is!"

Sasuke nodded.

"Yeah it certainly looks like it"

"I didn't know there was another person in existence with those powers. But they're really hard to control aren't they? They often rebound on the user..."

"Yeah, but they're the ones with the strongest powers among us. Just like him..."

"Your brother."

Sasuke nodded.

"It's time I payed him a visit."

_Help!_

"Telepathy, but who?" Sakura said a bit confused

_Someone please! Help me!_

"I've got a pretty good idea. Sakura you stay here. I'm going to make sure." Sasuke said

"But-" Sasuke cut her off.

"You take care of things here. I would look weird if we were both gone and something happened."

"Ok...but if something happens call me, alright?"

"Yeah I will."

Sasuke took off running in the direction the call for help had come from.

-----------------------

It hurt. It hurt so much.

He had lost them for a little while but now it looked like his time had run out. They were coming. He could feel it. They were coming to kill him. He sent another telepathic message but he new it was futile. Why would any one help him. He was a threat to them all.

Uzumaki Naruto Didn't even know why he was even trying. Slumped against the alley wall like this he wondered, for not the first time, if death would be a better option then this. Running all the time never stopping always in fear that he would lose control of his powers again, like last time. He probably should have given up by now and if someone got hurt trying to save him he wouldn't know what to do. Besides they would have a hard time killing him anyway.

He looked down at the bullet wounds on his body. They were almost fully healed. yes, There was no need for someone to risk their life for him. So he layed back against the cool brick of the wall and stared up at the sky. A raven flew above him and he once again thought of that beautiful dark haired boy.

He would probably never see him again. It was a shame he was cute and he had been so mean to him. If he ever saw him again he would apologize...

They were here. Their bright gold badges glowing brightly against the dark blue of their uniform. They said they stood for justice but in reality they just couldn't boss around their peers so they made them selves feel more powerful by killing anything different that might, eventually gain a position of power above them. They were sick freaks.

Naruto closed his eyes and waited for the final blow to come. But it didn't... he heard grunts and screams and yelling. He opened one of his eyes a crack only to be shocked by the sight that met his eyes. He saw the boy, Sasuke, beating up the officers like they were nothing. Naruto's jaw nearly touched the floor.

When all of the officers were down Sasuke turned toward the blond.

"Are you ok, dobe?"

Naruto chose to ignore the insult and nodded.

"Good. Damn do you know how long it took to find you?"

Sasuke shook his head.

"Can you stand?"

Naruto nodded again.

"I think so" He stood up slowly only to fall back down in pain.

"I think my leg is broken. Bones take longer to heal than flesh."

Sasuke frowned. He really didn't like this posability but if it was the only way.

"I'll carry you."

Naruto blinked.

"What?"

A nerve in sasuke's forehead twitched

"I said I'll carry you so get on my back already, I don't have all day"

Naruto stuck out his tongue 'jerk.'

He was heavier than Sasuke expected but it was still not a problem for Sasuke.

"So your a mage, right?"

Sasuke nodded

"Yeah."

"What do you control."

"Fire."

"cool"

Naruto snuggled into Sasuke's back it was comfortable and he realized how tired he had been.

"I'm sorry."

Sasuke blinked

"For what?"

"For everything."

And with that Naruto fell asleep.


	5. Too Late

I acctually sorta like this chapter. Sorry, but this chapter doesn't have what Sasuke found either. However, I can tell you that what he found is really not too important. What is Important is what Sasuke wants to do with that power. You sorta find that out in this chapter.

Also in here the roles are kinda reversed. The Akatsuki are the good guys and the people like the anbu are bad guys. However the all the good guys are still the good guys. Make any sense. No? Good.

And one more explaining bit in this chapter you will probably be wondering why Sasuke is not using telepathy. Well the main reason for that is that he can't. Only certain people can use telepathy. Sakura can to a certain extent and so can Kakashi but it's just something you either can or can't do. Only mages can hear telepathic messages so that is why Naruto knew that Sasuke was a mage.

Parings: Sasunaru(er..eventually...I think) Inosaku

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

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Chapter 5: Too Late

by Harushi Karasunaki

Sasuke needed a ride.

There was only so far one could go through the back allies dodging police officers and suspicious people with a person who was far heavier than they looked on their back And Sasuke was starting to get tired. Sasuke normally would have called someone on his cell phone by now but unfortunately for him his phone was in his back pocket and because he was carrying the blond dobe his hands were currently occupied at the moment. He could have put the blond down for a moment but that might wake him up and probably do more damage to his already broken leg. It wasn't because the blond looked cute when he was sleeping. No, not at all.

So here he was walking along to a place he knew of well but had only been to a few times when he heard the rumbling of a car engine and a familiar female voice calling his name as a bright red sports car pulled up beside him.

"Sasuke!" Sakura called to him from the front passenger seat.

Sasuke looked over at the car.

"Didn't I tell you to stay at school?"

"Well Sasuke if you don't need our help we'll just leave then."

This came from the person in the driver's seat, Yamanaka Ino. Ino was Sakura's girlfriend and two years older than them at 17. She and Sakura had been going out for a while and Sakura and Ino could almost always be found together. Ino was not a mage like Sasuke and Sakura but she did have some magic potential**(1)** and could see the future a bit.

"So you need a ride or not?"

Sasuke shook his head slightly and then nodded at Ino.

"Yeah, a ride would be nice."

Ino grinned at him.

"Ok then get in and I'm sure we have some bandages in the back to patch up your boyfriend."

Sasuke glared

"Ino, he is not m-"

He was cut off by Ino who held up a hand.

"Just get in the car."

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After Sasuke had gotten in the car he had, with Sakura's help, quickly gotten to work putting Naruto's leg in a splint and putting bandages around the worse wounds that hadn't healed already. Once he was sure that Naruto was taken care of he layed back in his seat. He was exhausted.

"So Sasuke where are we going." Ino asked Sasuke as she pulled he car out of its impromptu parking spot.

"Center of town. The Akatsuki's Daybreak building."

Ino slammed on the breaks.

"What! The Akatsuki's building! The Akatsuki are those people that specialize in catching people like you and Sakura. That's like suicide going in there!"

Sakura shook her head.

"No Ino, its not like that. That's just a cover. They're really good people that are here to help us."

Ino looked skeptical.

"And exactly how would you know this."

Sakura opened her mouth to say something but Sasuke beat her to it.

"My brother is in the Akatsuki."

"He is? Well I guess that explains a lot. So this Akatsuki that I've heard of is actually just a ruse to cover up the group's true motive which is to help people? Sounds fishy to me but if your sure."

Sasuke nodded.

"Yeah that's pretty much it."

Ino took her foot off the brake and the car started to move again.

"Well at least we've got that cleared up. Geeze next time tell me if your going to do something like that ok?"

Sasuke just nodded and reached for his cell phone. Sakura looked over at him curiously.

"Who are you calling?" she asked.

"My brother. I should call and tell him that I'm coming."

Sasuke quickly punched in the phone number of his brothers cell.

One ring...two rings...three rings and then

"Hello this is Uchiha Itachi Speaking. May I ask who is calling?"

"Hey brother it's me."

"Sasuke! It's so nice to hear from you are you doing well at school."

"I am and I've still got the title of the best street fighter in the city"

"I'm proud of you sasuke."

Then Itachi's voice took a more serious edge.

"So what is this call really about. The dark moody teenage Sasuke that I know wouldn't just call me out of the blue for a friendly chat."

"I need you to gather the organization. I have a boy with me with the same powers that you have and he is being chased by the police and the anbu."

"I'll see what I can do Sasuke."

"hey, ni-san with the information that we gather from this boy we might be able to cure you right?"

there was a pause on the other side of the line.

"I hope so Sasuke but-"

Itachi heard the sound of a car horn and someone yelling.

"I'm sorry ni-san. I have to go now Ino's in one of her fits of road rage again. I will be there in a bit alright? Please try to gather them."

there was a click and the phone call ended.

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The room was dark and another caughing fit swept through the young man sitting in the chair behind a rather professional looking desk.

"I hope so Sasuke but.."

He looked down at the blood covering his hand.

"It looks like it's already too late for me."

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1. People with magic potential are like psycics. They can tell the future, read people's fortunes, and sometimes talk with ghosts. They have slowly made their way into normal society and are no longer scorned or ridiculed.


	6. Like I Never Could

I Know this is a week late. I'm sorry. I Went on a trip to NASA with my school and then I had to do a moutain of make up work when I got home. However it is more than twice as long. this chapter is more of a linking chapter. It's boring and I didn't really want to write it. But I needed a way to get to Sasuke's back story. You get to find out what saskue found on the computer in this chapter. It is rather dissapointing. alot of things in this chapter were added to make it a little less boring. Most of the characters are ooc. Sorry about that. If you have any sugestions on what I should do with this story please tell me. I don't know where it's going.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

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Chapter 6: Like I Never Could

Naruto awoke to the sound of yelling.

"Fucking bastards! Stay in your own lane!"

"Ino! Calm down."

The girl called Ino huffed and he could almost feel her glare from where he was sitting.

"Bastards!" She mumbled under her breath

Where was he and what was he doing there?. He didn't really remember. He was warm and comfortable and he snuggled closer to the source of the warmth. Tiredly he opened his eyes and stared up into dark coal black eyes.

"Sleep well?"

Naruto nodded tiredly recognizing the boy who had saved him before.

"Where am I?"

"In Ino's car" he said nodding his head to the blond driving the car.

Ino perked up at the mention of her name.

"Ah! Looks like sleeping beauty's awake. Did you get a kiss from your handsome prince?"

Naruto and Sasuke both blushed.

"Ino..." Sasuke said behind gritted teeth

"I'm just kidding. Jeeze!" She said rolling her eyes

"It's good to see you're awake Naruto, How are you feeling?" This came from the pink haired girl in the front passenger seat.

"I'm alright now. My wounds are almost completely healed."

Naruto looked her over. She seemed vaguely familiar.

"Oh yeah, come to think of it I don't think we've been properly introduced."

Sakura said smiling.

"My name is Haruno Sakura. This is" she pointed to Ino "Yamanaka Ino and the grouchy person sitting next to you is Uchiha Sasuke."

Naruto's eyes widened.

"Did I hear you correctly? Uchiha Sasuke. You mean from that family?"

Sasuke nodded

"Who would have thought that a member of one of the families that was so radically against mages would turn out to be one!" Naruto exclaimed loudly.

Sasuke glared.

"Do try to be a bit quieter sound tends to carry. And yes it seems irony is abound these days for instance the powers meant to save your life ended up incriminating you."

Naruto grimaced

"You've certainly done your research haven't you?"

"Of course. If you don't want to be found out you shouldn't mention things that go on in your old town that were on the news just a short time ago."

Naruto huffed.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. So where exactly are we going?"

"To a place with people who can help."

Naruto frowned

"who!?"  
"The Akatsuki."

"But aren't they-"

"No, they're not. They are here to help

"But don't they-"

"No."  
"Hey guys I hate to interrupt your conversation but we're almost there"

Sure enough when they looked out of the window they saw it.

It was a roughly normal building and not what you would expect from the headquarters of the Akatsuki and you could barely tell it apart from the other buildings on the street if not for the small red clouds painted with care on the bottom of the building. It was the Akatsuki logo after all.

Sasuke had only been there a few times before with his brother and, Despite the fact of what they did and who they were, he had always gotten the feeling of a professional business. Well, a professional business on the day before Christmas break. They were rather lively bunch.

Ino pulled her car into one of the parking spots.

"You can go in but I'm staying out here. No matter what you say they still creep me out" she said

"I'll stay with her. Call us if you need us to drive you somewhere, ok?" Sakura said smiling.

Sasuke nodded

"Alright then."

Then he turned to Naruto.

"Can you stand?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think."

He got out of the car and stood up shakily and started to walk.

"Yeah I got it." he said turning his attention to Sasuke.

"Good, lets go."

Sasuke led the way through the Twisting parking lot and to the front doors. He had walked into the lobby of the building and was greeted by the receptionist.

"Hello, may I help you?" She asked a slightly forced smile on her face.

Sasuke shook his head.

"No. I'm just here to see my brother. I don't need any help."

The receptionist smiled wider.

"I'm afraid you can't do that. Please show your access card."  
Irritated Sasuke fished around in his pockets until he found what he was looking for."

"Here, this'll do right?" He said holding out a black card with small red clouds on it.

The receptionist took the card and swiped it through the card reader on her computer. She then held the card back out to him.

"I am afraid this card has expired."

Sasuke sighed exasperatedly While Naruto, in the background, just snickered.

"Look. I'm Itachi's younger brother. Can't you just do a search on it."

"I'm afraid that the data on this computer says that none of the Akatsuki members have brothers."

"Can't you just call him or something."

"Call who?" Said a voice from the hallway.

Sasuke turned around abruptly and smiled at who he saw.

"Hello Ni-san."

"Hello Sasuke, it has been a long time, hasn't it? It's good to see you." Itachi said walking up to Sasuke and placing his arms around him in a tight embrace.

"Yeah, ni-san it's good to see you too."

He was wearing the normal clothes of the Akatsuki members. It was a black suit with clouds at the bottom of the pants and the shirt and a red tie.

"Is this the one?" Itachi said looking behind Sasuke and to the blond.

Sasuke nodded

"Yeah."

"So this is the other person with demon powers."

Itachi smiled and held his hand out to Naruto.

"It's nice to meet you...um I never did get you name."

Naruto took his hand and gave it a shake.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet you."

"It is a pleasure to meet you Naruto-kun. I'm Sasuke's brother Uchiha Itachi."

"Sasuke's brother? I didn't know he had a brother."

"He didn't mention me? I'm hurt. But with a family as big as ours was I would have thought you would have guessed."

"Yeah I suppose...but what did you mean the other person with demon powers. Is there someone else like me? Who?"

Itachi smiled.

"That would be me. Come on now we're wasting time and we wouldn't want to keep them waiting would we."

They followed Itachi down the hall for a little ways until they came to a set of doors.

"Is this the room where the Akatsuki are?" Naruto questioned.

Sasuke snorted.

"No Naruto this is the elevator. The conference room is on the top floor."

"I-I Knew that." he said his face coloring slightly.

"Yeah, right." Sasuke mumbled

"Why you!"

"Calm down Naruto. You too Sasuke don't encourage him."

"Hai ni-san." Sasuke said

The elevator doors opened Sasuke and Naruto stepped in followed by Itachi. Itachi then pulled out a key card and slid it into a slot on the elevator and proceeded to type in the floor number.

"Hey, Itachi-san why do you need a card." Naruto asked curiously.

"This floor is off limits to anyone not in the Akatsuki or their guests so, naturally, you need a key to enter."

"Aa I see."

A few minutes and a bit of bad elevator music later they were back to following Itachi down the hall. He paused in front of a large mahogany door.

Pushing open the door he led them into a bright Almost cheerful looking room decorated rather festively for the upcoming Holiday, With turkeys and bright red leaves plastered all around.

Itachi suppressed a laugh at the look on Naruto's face.

"Not exactly what you would expect is it?"

Sasuke looked at the small robotic and clay turkeys running around.

"Deidara and Sasori's work I presume."

"It does make sense though, why they would get so exited about the Holidays. This is the closest they ever get to being with a real family after all."

"But Naruto" sasuke said looking over as the blond boy eyed the clay turkeys at his feet suspiciously "Try not to-"

Naruto reached out a finger to poke it. His finger had barely touched it when it make a small explosion right it his face. Naruto coughed and sputtered a bit.

"That thing just exploded!"

"Exactly what I was just about to say don't touch the turkeys they explode. Any questions?"

Naruto nodded

"What do the robotic ones do?"

"They have Knives."

"ah. Say, Itachi, how much farther is it?"

"Just through this door."

They had reached the end of the room and saw another door.

When they reached it Itachi turned the knob and entered the room followed by Sasuke and Naruto.

The room was like your normal business conference room. It had a large circular table made of wood in the center and and was cream colored walls.

The people sitting at the table weren't exactly what you'd call normal. Most of them were wearing hoods that covered their faces. six of them however, were not.**(1)**

among the people without their faces covered Naruto saw that There was a blond boy with hair covering one eye, two red headed males. A blond female, a brown haired kid with strange markings on his face and a guy shark like guy with bluish skin.

"Itachi. Did you bring the boy."asked one of the people with their faces covered up.

"Yes leader."

"Good." the man said

"Why don't you have a seat?"he said motioning to three empty chairs that Naruto hadn't noticed before.

The leader waited until they were seated before he spoke again.

"Sasuke what exactly did you find about this boy that made you want to bring him here?"

"He is the same as my brother. We could cure Ni-san if we found out more about him. Also, he is being chased by the anbu, as Itachi should have told you, and I couldn't have just left him there."

The leader nodded

"Usually we don't get involved with cases where the person is already a major target but in this case we might make an exception. So, tell me, how did you know about his powers."

"Do you remember the day in the news when they talked about the demon and black fire at the school in Arashi? There was a boy caught in that fire that was believed to have started it. He was near death and they thought he wouldn't live but, miraculously, the next day he was almost perfectly healed. He was going to be killed but it seems he escaped from the hospital and ran to Konoha. His name was Uzumaki Naruto."

"How did you find out all this information?" One of the others asked

"They were trying to keep it under wraps but it was surprisingly easy to hack into the information."

"So what do you want us to do about it." the shark like guy asked.

"It should be pretty easy for you to protect him, Right, Kisame?"

"Yeah, yeah I suppose your right."

"I have one question though." Sasuke said

"What is he doing here? He's not in the Akatsiki." Sasuke asked pointing to the shorter of the red heads.

"I'm just watching. It takes a lot to rule a country. Be glad I'm still on your side."

"So you're Kazekage now Gaara? Congrats."

"It is pretty easy when your the son of the previous Kazakage."Gaara said

"You still have to be the most qualified person in the country."

"Yeah. Two down and only three more to go till we can get rid of this stupid law."

Naruto looked over as the two talked quietly.

"Am i missing something here?" he whispered to Itachi quietly

"They're best friends. Gaara is the son of the previous Kazekage and now the current one."

"Aa." Naruto said nodding.

The Akatsuki leader cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Meeting adjourned."

They all got up and began chatting quietly.

"So what's going to happen to me?" Naruto asked

"Your going to stay with us for a while." Itachi said smiling

"We have a room for you on this floor so as soon as you get the key for it you can go to see it."

"Ok where to I get my key?"

"Go down to the receptionist and show this card." He pulled out a bright red card. "Ask for the key to room 1670."

Naruto looked at the card

"This isn't expired is it."

Itachi laughed

"No it's not."

Naruto took the card.

"Room 1670 right?" Naruto asked

"Yeah." Itachi nodded

Naruto ran off in the direction of the lobby

"where is he going in such a hurry?" Sasuke asked appearing by Itachi's side

"To get the key to his room. Did you finish talking with Gaara."

"Yeah."

"Ne, Sasuke do you want to stay with me tonight."

Sasuke nodded

"Sure, but we'll have to call Kakashi or else he'll through a fit."

"He always was the type to worry about people wasn't he."

Itachi flipped open his cell phone and dialed in the number from memory.

"Hello, Kakashi. It's me."

"Yeah Sasuke's staying over here tonight."

"Yeah I will."

"Ok, Bye."

Itachi flipped his cell phone closed

"Well it seems he is just the same as ever. Come on Sasuke lets go to my room.

The walked back through the hall they had entered through and Down another hall filled with doors. Stopping at one of them Itachi opened the door and led Sasuke inside.

"You really need to do so decorating Ni-san. This looks like a hotel."

"I guess your right but it's late now lets get to bed."

"Ok."

"You can sleep in there." Itachi said pointing to a room on the far left.

"I'm right across the hall if you need me."

Sasuke nodded

"Alright."

Sasuke walked into the room and was pleasantly surprised. Unlike most of Itachi's apartment it was decorated In varying shades of blue with dark red flames at the bottom.

"Like it?" Itachi asked from the doorway.

Sasuke nodded

"Thanks Ni-san."

"It was really nothing."

"Sure."

"Get to bed now Sasuke it's late."

"Alright."

Sasuke was asleep almost as soon as he hit the pillow.

Itachi watched from the doorway.

Walking up to Sasuke he brushed a few stray bangs from his face.

"Have a good life Sasuke. Live. Live and be free."

He started coughing

"Like I never could."

----------------------

1. After the anime started the filler arc I didn't really read much of the manga so those are the only Akatsuki members I know. but of course Gaara and his siblings aren't in the Akatsuki.


	7. Dark Dreams

This is really late, isn't it. Sorry about that. I've been really busy in the last few weeks doing everything from band concerts to working on my Odyssey of the Mind problem And Kat-Tun is now my favorite band. My science teacher, the one that got burned, is back and doing well. Christmas break just started today so, if I am able to figure out what happens next and not get writers block, I should have a chapter by next saturday or sunday.

This chapter is way better than the last one and is, in my opinion, well worth the wait. I don't think I've ever written a chapter this long. I hope this is good enough. enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.  
Warnings: boys love, language  
Parings: Sasunaru, SakuIno, and slight Kakashi/Itachi and other random yaoi and yuri parings

---------------

Chapter five: Dark Dreams

Sasuke slept, and as he slept he dreamed, and as he dreamed he remembered...

----------

A young Sasuke of no more than eight looked down in distaste at his half finished homework. He just didn't get it. Sure he was incredibly intelligent, more so than most people his age he, but... problems were bound to happen when you stuck an eight year old in pre-algebra. Honestly he didn't know what his father was thinking and when ever he tried to talk to him about it his father would start ranting about him being one of the heirs to their family company and that if something happened to Itachi he would have to be there, not that he would ever be as good as Itachi. Itachi was the perfect son.

Sasuke's hold on his pencil tightened until he thought it might break. His father never thought of him as his own person. It was always Itachi this, Itachi that. He was always the inferior one, the one who would never be as good, the one needed to be better.

Honestly he hated his father for it but, no matter what his father said he didn't feel any animosity towards his brother. His brother was always looking out for him. He was the only one that ever really cared, all of the kids at school never really liked him, they thought he was too quiet, to smart, and just plain weird and, in a way he kind of agreed with them. It made for a lonely life. But, when he was almost over come with that sad loneliness his brother was always there, to remind him that he wasn't alone.

His brother was the one to convince his father to put him in pre-algebra instead of regular algebra. His brother was his guiding light in his dark world and his brother...was currently on a business trip. Which was why he was still working on his homework at this time of night. Usually Itachi helped him study but tonight his brother, who had just recently turned fourteen, was going to a large town, about three hundred miles away called Konoha **(1)** to meet with the president **(2)** at a party held in his honor to celebrate the completion of his first year of collage.

Sasuke snickered and let the pencil drop from his fingers onto the paper. Itachi hated the president. Sasuke wasn't really sure why though. Yeah, sure, he was a jerk but Itachi's hatred for him seemed to go deeper than that and Sasuke had serious doubts that president Orochimaru would live through the party, His brother could be scary when he was angry.

But, no matter what the condition of the president was at the end of the ceremony, it still put his brother three hundred miles away and Sasuke with a only half finished worksheet filled with doodles, scribbles, and crossed out wrong answers.

Sasuke sighed and fell down on his bed and pulled out the hair tie that had been holding his slightly long hair in the ponytail he had put it in so he could keep it out of his eyes. He needed a haircut. How could Itachi stand to have his hair that long anyway?

Looking over at his incomplete work sheet he gave it a glare. Stupid homework. He looked at the clock that glowed bright red in dim light from the small lamp in his room. He liked it dark. Eleven sixteen p.m. the clock read. Deciding it was time for bed Sasuke got up. He could finish the assignment in the morning, they were graded on completion anyway so it didn't make a difference whether he put down the correct answers any way so he was probably stressing too much over a simple thing like a worksheet but he actually wanted to understand the material so he wouldn't make a fool of himself when it came time for the test unlike his older classmates who were happy just to go through life with straight D's.

Walking over to his closet he opened it and fished around in a pile of folded clothes to find something suitable for sleeping in. Finally he decided on a white shirt with a blue collar and dark blue pajama bottoms. He changed his clothes and moved over to his bed. Getting in bed he pulled up the sheets, laid his head on his pillow, and waited for the spell of sleep to claim him.

----------

The next few days passed slowly for Sasuke. It seemed like his brother was always busy and never had any time for him recently. Sasuke was bored but he new when not to impose. His brother was looking sad though and Sasuke wondered what was wrong. He knew from experience that his brother rarely showed his emotions to the outside world. He always had on that brave front in front of people, But Sasuke knew. He heard his brother crying during the night, saw the pained look in his eyes that had appeared there recently and seemed to stay even when he smiled and laughed.

He knew better than to pry but...he really was worried. He knew that what ever was upsetting Itachi was at least ten times worse than what he showed on the outside.

As Sasuke watched his brother he saw, slowly but surely, a change. His once sad eyes were filled with resolve and acceptance. And for that, whatever the reason, Sasuke was glad.

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke turned around when he heard his voice being called. It was a rather warm afternoon in late July, and Sasuke was out for a walk. July twenty second to be exact. And tomorrow, was his birthday.

"Nani, Ni-san?"

His brother was running up to him looking a bit out of breath.

"I've been looking for you all over town." he said still panting slightly.

"I have today off so I was wondering if we could spend a little bit of time together."

Sasuke looked up at him and shook his head.

"But Ni-san-" It was rare for his brother to get a free day or two and Sasuke thought he should spend the time doing something for himself and not spending time with his younger brother.

He was cut off with a flick to the forehead.

"No buts Sasuke. Think of this as a slightly early birthday present."

Itachi grabbed Sasuke by the hand and dragged him down the street.

"So where do you want to go first?"

----------

Five bags and four hours later they were sitting in a local ice cream parlor munching away at there cones. Itachi had dragged Sasuke all around town to this place and that and had gotten Sasuke some new clothes, a new skate board, and a few of the newest electronics. Not that Sasuke had asked his brother to buy him all of these things. Itachi just seemed to know.

"So Sasuke, are you exited about your birthday tomorrow?" Itachi asked licking his pistachio ice cream cone.

Sasuke nodded

"Yes, Ni-san."

"Good I'm glad to hear that." Itachi said smiling and nodding and then his eyes darkened some and he put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder.

"But remember Sasuke, Be careful. Nine is the number of destruction. Bad things happen on nines so watch your back alright. I don't want anything bad happening to you, so try to be safe ok?"

Sasuke nodded. He trusted his brother and if his brother thought there was something to be worried about, then there probably was.

"Alright."

---------

the sun was setting as they walked back to their house. After the ice cream they had gone to an arcade and played a few games for a while and, after that, they had gone to see a movie, one with lots of gore and little plot but, that was ok, they hadn't really been expecting much out of the movie anyway. They had just wanted to see if it was as bad as the reviews of it said and Sasuke on a scale of one to ten thought it deserved a zero.

Right now though, they were just walking along enjoying each others company. Well, they were until...

"Hey, Sasuke."

Sasuke tilted his head up to look at his brother.

"Yes, Ni-san?"

Itachi smiled brightly at him.

----------

'How did I get suckered into this'

"Ni-san! This is a dress. A dress!"

By now Itachi was nearly on the floor with laughter.

"We can cut the frills off Sasuke. Besides it was the only this I had left for you to paint in so you wouldn't get your clothes dirty. You did ask if you could help me, right?"

His brother was, unknown by the rest of the family, a very good painter. So when Itachi had offered to decorate his room he had jumped at the chance to help him.

"Well, yeah but...Hey, what are you doing with a dress anyway?"

"Kakashi gave it to me, said I would look cute in it and, while it may be a bit big on you, it does look cute." Itachi had calmed down just enough to dodge the pillow that Sasuke had thrown.

Kakashi was Itachi's "best friend". of course, Sasuke wasn't dumb He knew what was really going on but he didn't bother to pry. Whatever his brother did wasn't his business anyway.

"So you ready to get started?"

Sasuke really just couldn't say no to that smile.

----------

It was late at night and Itachi was tucking Sasuke into bed. He had just finished his painting on Sasuke's room. Fire on a dark blue background with stars and constellations all over the place. It wasn't too bad for a few hours work. He looked down at Sasuke and a frown appeared on his face. He wanted Sasuke to live a good life, a free life, didn't want him to always live in his shadow. He heard some of the things their father said to Sasuke and it hurt. Sasuke was his own person. It didn't help the the god/demon that was the source of his powers had sent him a warning of destruction to come.

---------

When Sasuke woke up in the morning he was in awe of his room. He really liked it and somehow the flames on the wall seemed to comfort him. It was nice.

Sasuke smiled as he got up. Today was his birthday and, for the first time in a long while, he hadn't had one of those dreams. Usually at night he would be haunted by disasters and deaths and lots of horrible things yet to come but last night he was finally able to get a peaceful sleep..

Sasuke brushed his teeth, got dressed and walked down to the dining room where his father was sitting reading a newspaper and drinking coffee, his mother was washing dishes, and his brother was eating toast.

"Want some?" Itachi offered gesturing to the plate of toast.

"Sure." Sasuke said reaching for a piece.

"Happy birthday, Sasuke." his mother called from the kitchen.

"Arigato, Oka-san"

"Itachi was graduating middle school when he was your age Sasuke, you should try harder." His father grumbled.

Sasuke gripped the edge of the table tightly.

"Yes father."

Itachi sent his father a glare which his father ignored. Then, looking at the clock, he got up and began to walk to the door.

"it's time for me to go to work. Have a good day and Happy birthday Sasuke."

"You have a good day too, Ni-san."

Itachi nodded and was then out the door.

----------------

Sasuke, who had gotten bored, had decided to go outside and explore one of the unexplored portions of their family's grounds. Sasuke didn't know why they needed so much land, they would never need it. Sometimes though he came out here just to relax and have a private moment to himself, away from his family.

After exploring for a bit he decided to go to his secret place. Pushing his way through a dense clump of bushes he found what he was looking for.

A beautiful clear blue fresh water lake lay before him, its sapphire waters glittering in the mid day sun. Sasuke smiled, he really liked this place. It put his mind at ease.

Looking back and fourth to see if anyone was watching, not that anyone would be but it was always better to be safe than sorry. Slowly he held out his hand, closed his eyes, and let the familiar fall over him. When that heat started to build up and then he concentrated on putting all that energy into his hand and then...

Opening his eyes he smiled. There, floating just above the palm of his hand was a small fire ball. He could have made more if he tried but he didn't think he had enough control over his powers to try something like that. Last time he had tried to make a lot of them he had almost burned a hole in his shirt and that would have been hard to explain to his father.

-----------

Sasuke looked up at the sky. It was getting late. He had set next to the lake for a while and had lost track of time.

Getting up from his spot next to the lake he wiped the dirt off his pants and started to walk home. The sky was dyed a beautiful bright red and Sasuke couldn't help but stare at it as he walked back to the Uchiha estate. It reminded him of his fire and everything that had anything to do with fire comforted him.

Slipping off his shoes just in side the door he frowned. The house was oddly quiet.

"Tadaima!" he called.

From upstairs he heard a creak and saw his father appear at the top of the stairs. He did not look very happy.

"Welcome home Sasuke." the tone his father used was enough to scare Sasuke slightly.

"Father...?" Sasuke said backing away slightly

"I thought I taught you better than that Sasuke." was that a paint brush in his hand?

"You have gone against our family's most sacred law. We are the Uchiha, the ones that put out the flames. So what were they doing on your bed room wall?"

"Itachi painted them for me." Sasuke said shaking slightly.

His father was down the steps and at his youngest sons throat in seconds

"Liar!!!" he said pulling Sasuke up into the air and trying to choke him.

"My son would never do something like that. Itachi is perfect. You are not anything like him, you lieing scum! Our family hates fire and anything that has to do with fire. My perfect son would never paint something like that you liar!!!"

He dropped Sasuke and the boy started coughing.

"I took the liberty of getting rid of it for you. Don't let me see anything like that ever again. Are we clear?"

Sasuke just nodded tears forming in his eyes.

"Good then get out of my sight."

Sasuke ran.

Going into his room he saw that it had been painted over in white. Fighting back tears he walked to his closet and found the secret and only passage to a room that even his father didn't know about. Itachi had shown it to him about a year ago as an eighth birthday present.

It was only in that room with his fire balls surrounding did he allow him self to cry.

-----------

Uchiha Itachi was running late and the pastry shop was just about to close. That morning he had reserved a cake there and he needed to be there before it closed to pick it up. Honestly! What kind of shop closed at six O'clock. He made it there in time with ten minutes to spare.

Picking up his cake he had reserved he walked the five blocks from the pastry shop to his home whistling happily as he walked. Since when had he whistled? Oh well, Itachi didn't really care he just hoped Sasuke would like his cake.

Itachi pulled his shoes off and sett them next to Sasuke's

"I'm home."

"Welcome home Itachi did you have a good day." he heard his father say from where he was sitting at the dining room table.

"Yeah, I did." he looked around the room

"Where is Sasuke."

his father's gaze hardened.

"I don't know where that fucking liar is."

Itachi glared.

"What did you do?" Itachi asked his voice filled with malice.

"Nothing the little fucker didn't deserve."

"What did you do?" Itachi asked again his tone more severe this time.

When his father didn't answer Itachi just glared.

"You know what? I don't have time for this."

He had an idea where Sasuke might be and, judging by the muffled sobbing he heard as he neared the secret room that he had showed to Sasuke only a year before, it seemed he was right.

"Sasuke..." he called softly knocking on the entrance and trying hard to ignore the cold, dark emptiness of the white room.

Hearing no reply he pushed on the small panel, that was the entrance to the secret room, and crawled through on his hands and knees.

Looking at his crying brother surrounded by fire he sighed. He had known it would turn out like this. He had sensed the waves of power emanating off his brother ever since he was born. Though he had probably been in denile. He hadn't wanted his brother to suffer the type of life he would have to lead. He should have talked to Sasuke about this sooner especially with their family the way it was.

"Sasuke..." there was still no response from the younger boy curled up in the corner

he made his way over to the boy and reached out a hand but was met with a fire ball instead.

Itachi gave a sad smile.

"You're lucky I'm like you Sasuke or that would have hurt."

Sasuke raised his head and weakly said

"You're like me..."

"Yeah..."

Sasuke's bright red flames were joined by dark black flames that seemed to, rather than give off light, absorb it instead.

"This is my power."

"Why didn't you tell me before...?"

Itachi shook his head.

"I don't know Sasuke, I don't know."

"Father said that we were supposed to hate fire and anything that has anything to do with fire. Does...does that mean that he hates me too. I have these powers so does father hate me?"

Sasuke buried his head in Itachi's shirt.

"Sasuke...Sasuke look at me."

Sasuke's now bright red eyes met Itachi's coal black ones.

"There are people that hate anyone that is different. They hate anything they don't understand or can't relate to. In our society people like us are killed for being different. Our family is one of the extremes but there are others. Some better some worse but remember I'll always be there for you Sasuke."

"I know..."

"Know what Sasuke?" Itachi inquired.

"That you will always be there for me and that there are people who want to kill us. I see it every night in my dreams. People dieing, things crumbling apart, and I feel their pain. Pain that even they haven't experienced yet."

Sasuke clutched at his heart.

"It hurts Itachi. It hurts so much."

"I can make it so you won't see those anymore if you want Sasuke."

"You could."

Itachi nodded.

"If you allow me to you won't have to see any more bad dreams again."

"Please."

"Close your eyes, Sasuke."

Sasuke closed his eyes and Itachi did the same. When Itachi opened his eyes again they were blood red Itachi put a hand on Sasuke's forehead and muttered something under his breath and a light appeared under the hand on Sasuke's forehead.

"You can open your eyes now Sasuke."

Sasuke blinked. His eyes had gone back to their original onyx color.

"What did you do?" he asked

"It's just a simple spell. I can teach it to you if you want."

Sasuke nodded.

"Yeah!"

"But, for now lets eat some of this cake I got for your birthday. It's your favorite, chocolate."

Sasuke made a face.

"Just kidding Sasuke." Itachi said laughing

"It's vanilla almond, I know you don't like chocolate. What kind of brother would I be if I didn't even know that."

-------------

As the months passed Sasuke's relationship with his father seemed only to steadily decline. The were not on speaking terms anymore and wouldn't even be in the same room together. But, it seemed, even his relationship with his father wouldn't dull his mood.

Itachi had, since his ninth birthday, been teaching him how to control his powers. He was able to do a lot of tricky things and he could even make a fireball just as powerful when it was cold out, in which it was harder to control the temperature energy put behind it. And it sure was cold.

------------

Sasuke was happy. Oh so happy.

He had made a friend, a girl named Sakura, and she was the same as he was. Another person like him!

She was from Konoha and was here to visit her sick aunt. She was a nice person. There weren't many nice people in his city. Everyone was either sucking up to him to get money from his rich family or they were weirded out by his intelligence. But not her. She was actually smarter than him and she had never even heard of the Uchiha clan.

Walking up to the house he smiled. It was safe, his dad was supposed to be at a conference in the sound village today, and Itachi said he would be home early.

Sasuke walked in through the door.

"I'm home!" he called out and then, hearing the sound of footstep, believing them to belong to Itachi, he continued.

"I made a friend today, Ni-san! She is like me and she excepts me for who I am."

suddenly he heard fast footsteps coming up from behind him and felt cold, sharp steel press up against his neck.

"Just like you huh? You mean she's another one of those freaks of nature like you are." His father said coldly

"Maybe I should kill her too, just like your dear old mother who tried to stop me."

"O-Oka-san..." his eyes welled up with unshed tears.

"She tried to protect you to the very end, said that she would accept you no matter what you are. Can you believe that rubbish! You were the one that turned my Itachi, My perfect son, into one of your kind. I will kill you and free Itachi from this spell that you put on him."

"Where is Itachi." Sasuke asked holding back sobs.

"He called right before you came in and said that he would be home soon but that he had gotten a ride from one of his friends who had just gotten his license and that he was stuck in traffic. He seemed very surprised to hear my voice though, I wonder why..."

"How did you find out about me and Itachi?"

"I followed you one day. I was always wondering where you two went so I watched you, I watched you put a spell on my Itachi. You're the devil you know that. I watched your eyes turn red. You're the devil, the devil I say!" He was laughing now, a dark laugh that made Sasuke shiver in fear and break out into a cold sweat.

He was trying desperately to get away now but for some reason his powers wouldn't work. His father, no, that didn't seem an appropriate title for the man any more. The monster, noticing him trying to use his powers started laughing even harder.

"You won't be able to use those demon powers of yours anymore, at least not while I have one of these."

The monster pulled out a bright red slip of paper on it out from the front pocket of his jacket.

"Orochimaru-sama gave this to me. It has the power to render you powerless. With these at our disposal we can rid the world of you devils."

Sasuke stiffened. President Orochimaru. He knew he was evil and that he wanted to rid the world of mages but how was he able to cancel out his powers? It was an old mage trick to put their powers in talismans so that normal people could defend themselves. It was simple and even Sasuke could do it to some extent. But to do that he would have to be a mage. He didn't think he Orochimaru but he vaguely remembered something that Itachi had told him awhile ago back near his birthday. He had said that he couldn't even feel the slightest bit of energy coming off of Orochimaru when he had met him at the ceremony, not even the life energy that normal humans gave off without even knowing it. Itachi had dismissed it as being only his imagination but it made sense now. He could cancel out their powers.

He struggled to get out of the monster's grip but the monster pressed his knife up against Sasuke's neck hard enough to draw blood.

"We will wipe out all of your kind off the face of this planet but first,"

He lifted the knife high above his head, ready to strike. A sick smile appeared on is face.

"I will kill you and free Itachi!"

The silvery blade reflected the dim sunlight coming through the window a made an bright arc as it came down and ripped into his throat.

He heard the door open, loud footsteps, and his brother call his name.

"Sasuke!"

"Ni...-sa...n"

And then it all went black.

---------------

Itachi had been, like his father had told Sasuke, stuck in traffic. Kakashi had just turned 16 **(3)** about a month ago and his family had given him a car as a gift. Usually Itachi just walked home from work since he didn't live very far from the Akatsuki's in town base. Today, however, Kakashi had offered to drive him home. Of course he had accepted his boyfriends offer but now he wasn't sure it was such a great thing. It was Christmas eve and Itachi wanted to be there to spend it with Sasuke, not that he didn't want to spend time with Kakashi, but he would have liked to get home earlier that day. Pulling out his cell phone he flipped it open and scrolled down his contact list until he reached the name he was looking for, Uchiha. Pressing the call button Itachi held the phone up to his ear and listened to the phone ring. It rang for a while and Itachi frowned.

'Was Sasuke not home?' He wondered. Shrugging, he sighed. It's not like he kept Sasuke on a leash so it was fine if he went out for a while, he would probably be back soon anyway, so he would just leave a message for Sasuke so he would know that he would be a little late.

The tone for the start of the message sounded.

"Hey, Sasuke, I'll be home soon but I'm stuck in traffic, Kakashi offered to drive me, so-"

"Hello, Itachi."

"Otou-san? What are you doing home? I thought you were going to the land of sound for a conference."

"There was no need. Orochimaru-sama came to me and gave me the power to kill the demon controlling you with his black magic."

Itachi's eyes widened

"What do you mean by demon, Otou-san?"

"The one that's posing as your brother that's who!" The man laughed crazily.

"Don't worry, Itachi soon it will be only us." through the phone Itachi heard the sound of feet just outside their door.

"There he is now. Goodbye Itachi. Don't worry soon." There was a click and the line fell silent.

"Go now!" Kakashi, who had been listening to the conversation, ordered.

"His energy signal just disapeared."

Itachi needed no further prompting and was soon out of the car and running down the nearly deserted street at full speed. All the while his fathers words played over and over again in his head like a broken record.

"_Soon Itachi."_

Itachi just kept on running.

"_Orochimaru-sama gave me the power to kill the demon controlling you with his black magic." _

He was almost there.

"Sasuke, please...please be ok." Itachi whispered to himself.

"_Soon it will be only us."_

Running up to the front door he roughly pulled it open only to be met with the sight of his brother being held up by their father as the knife that the man held slashed Sasuke's throat.

"Sasuke!" he called out.

He saw his brother's eyes light with recognition and heard the terrible, painful rasping sound that came from his mouth where some of his blood bubbled out, trailing down his deathly pale skin.

"Ni...-sa...n."

He also saw the light die in his eyes as he spoke those words.

His father threw Sasuke's now dead body against the door of their traditional Japanese style house, causing the shoji screen to break.

"I've gotten rid of that monster for you Itachi, now we can both-"

The needle buried it's deep in the man's brain killing them instantly.

Rushing over to his brothers body he pulled Sasuke into his arms.

The body was already growing cold. There was no heart beat. He wasn't breathing, but Itachi refused to believe it.

"Sasuke, wake up." he said shaking his brother's body lightly. when he got no response he shook the body harder.

"Wake up! Please... Sasuke don't leave me."

"_He's dead Itachi. He won't wake up."_

Itachi didn't even have to turn around to know who was there. He would recognize that type of magic anywhere. It was the same as his. The magic of the demon that controlled the power of fire.

"What do you want, Suzaku? Did you come here to gloat that, even with all the power that you gave me, I couldn't save the person that was most important to me?"

Itachi sent a death glare toward the demon.

"_My my, Itachi why is it that you don't seem happy to see me? And here I thought I would help you by bringing your brother back to life, but if you you want me to leave."_

Itachi's eyes widened.

"You...you can bring him back?"

"_Yes I can. But for a price."_

"I don't care what the price is, just please... bring him back."

"_You realize that I am planning to take your life right?"_

Itachi nodded.

"Yeah, that's all you demons ever want, isn't it? Do what you must."

the phoenix like being nodded and it was all over before he could blink his eyes.

The shot of flame pierced his heart and he felt like all the life was being sucked out of him but when it ended he was surprised. Looking down at his shaking hands he frowned, he was still alive. But, why? The demon had been serious about taking his life, he knew that, so why?

"_I'm just a surprised as you, boy. I did not believe your heart was that strong. Had you had any doubts in your mind about sacrificing yourself for him you would have died. As it is you will die anyway though. You should have listened to my warnings about your powers . Your dieing, Itachi"_

"Yeah I am." Itachi said nodding thinking back to the words that the demon had told him that day when he had discovered his powers.

**--------- **

**Itachi sat it the dark room facing the creature before him. Neither human nor animal with the power of a god. The demon was not something that you wanted on to be an enemy of.**

"**_Itachi."_ the creature spoke in a voice that was not male or female.**

"_**Your powers use your life energy as their source. Don't use then too much of else you'll die. I don't want the only person that I've chosen in a thousand years to die on me because of something like that.**_

----------

"So, are you going to bring him back or not?" Itachi asked, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"_I will keep my word still do as I said I would."_

Sasuke's body was enveloped in a warm orange glow and, though the blood remained, the wound on his neck disappeared.

"Ni-san."

"I'm here, Sasuke. I'm here." Itachi said tears making wet trails down his cheeks.

"Don't cry Ni-san." Sasuke said reaching up to brush away a few of the tears from his brother's eyes.

"I'm back and I'm staying, this time for good."

-----------------

1. Sasuke and Itachi do not live in Konoha they move there about a month after this and Kakashi goes with them.

2. The political system in this world goes something like this. There is a president and five kage. the president has less power than all five of the kage together but if one kage sides with the president then the president can pass whatever law he wants. That is what the comment that Gaara made last chapter ment as the hokage, Tsunade is on the side of the mages and so is Gaara so they need three more kage on their side to get rid of the law that kills mages.

3. In this flash back Kakashi is 16. In the regular story he just turned 22 and Itachi is 20.

Japanese word bank.

Tadaima- I'm home  
Ni-san- older brother  
Oka-san- mother  
Otou-san- father


	8. It Never Was

I had this written yesterday but was too lazy to post because I was playing video games on my new X-box 360. This chapter is pretty short but I hope you like it.

Warnings: Yaoi, Yuri, implied one-sided incest(can be worked around if you don't like it)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I Richard Bach(the person that wrote the quote that Itachi says).

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Human Error chapter six:

It Never was

The first thing Sasuke noticed when he awoke that morning was the smell of maple syrup and the sound of bacon sizzling as it hit the pan. The second thing was that his pillow was uncomfortably damp. His hand rose up to his face and he felt a slight wetness there. Brushing away the tears he sat up and gazed out the one-way mirrored glass, that most of the windows in the building were made of, and sighed.

Because of the spell that his brother had cast on him six years ago he hardly ever remembered any of his dreams, as they were usually dreams of the future. However, on the rare chance that he actually did remember a dream, he would remember it down to the last minute detail. Dreams of the past were exceptionally painful for him.

There was a light knocking on the door.

"Sasuke?" Itachi called opening the door a crack and stepping inside.

"Hai?" Sasuke said, turning to face his his brother.

"I just wanted to tell you that breakfast was..." he trailed off and surveyed the condition of his younger brother. Sasuke's eyes were red and puffy and there were tear stains on his face.

"Are you alright, Sasuke? You look like you've been crying." he asked, concern apparent in his voice.

Sasuke shook his head and gave his brother a warm smile.

"You worry too much, Ni-san! I'm fine! It was only a dream. So," Sasuke's smile widened.

"what's for breakfast?" he questioned.

"Your favorite, eggs Benedict with bacon instead of ham, and pancakes."

"Real maple syrup?"

"Of course, would you expect anything less?"

Sasuke shook his head.

"Nah, I'll be out in a minute just let me get changed, kay?"

"Alright, see you in a bit, Sasuke." Itachi smiled at him before closing the door and leaving Sasuke alone in the room.

Sasuke returned to staring wistfully out the window.

"Just a dream, eh?" he whispered softly to himself.

Because really that was all it was. There were many terrible things in this world and to get through life you had to put things behind you and just live to the best of your abilities. No matter how bad things got or how much you wanted to die you should try to live a good life. He could go on and on about how bad his life was but, it wouldn't change anything. He should put the past behind him and try to live for the future.

With that in mind he pulled the sheets that had been covering him off and walked toward the small closet in the room where he knew he would surely find some thing to wear. His brother took him out on frequent shopping trips when he wasn't busy and since he couldn't possibly carry all of the things that his brother bought him most of them eventually ended up here. Pulling out a pair of baggy jeans with a rather large amount of pockets and a black shirt he looked back out that window.

The obnoxiously brightly colored birds wouldn't stop their incessant twittering, the too-bright sun was peeking its way out from behind a white puffy cloud, a light layer of fresh snow covered the ground and the chimneys of the houses had a small curls of smoke emanating from them. It was one of those picture perfect happy days. Why should he be upset on a day like this?

--------

Itachi was reading the news paper and drinking a cup of coffee when Sasuke entered the dining room.

"Anything interesting?" Sasuke asked walking up behind his brother so he could see the headlines.

"Not really, some guy named Osoreda robbed a bank**(1)**. Why don't you have a seat, your breakfast is getting cold. Itachi said sipping his coffee and pointing to the chair across from him in front of which sat a plate of food.

Nodding Sasuke went to the opposite side of the table and sat down in the chair.

"This looks good." he said picking up his fork.

"Well, anything must be better than what you usually have to deal with, ne?" Itachi said watching his brother happily eat his breakfast.

Sasuke's fork stopped halfway to his mouth.

"He tried to cook something the other day."

Itachi's eyes widened.

"Is your house still there?" he questioned.

"Surprisingly, yes. Though I still wouldn't let him within five feet of a kitchen."

"That bad, huh?"

When their father had tried to kill Sasuke they had been just a little bit shaken up about the incident. So, like the all supportive boyfriend that he was, Kakashi had tried to cook them a big meal, with all their favorite dishes. The key word there was, of course, tried. They had barely escaped with their lives and a few precious possessions before the, once grand, Uchiha estate was turned into nothing but ashes blowing in the wind. It a way, even though he had burned down their house, what Kakashi had done had freed them and they were no longer trapped in that house with all its dark memories. They had moved to Konoha about a week later as that was were the Akatsuki main office building was. By working at the Akatsuki, Itachi had enough money to buy whatever he needed and he had payed for a house for Kakashi to move into after he had said that he had wanted to stay near them.

"Yeah. Can't he hack into an on line cookbook sometime. Is that why you broke up with him?" Sasuke asked.

"That might have been one of the reasons but that's not why. We were best friends and being together just didn't seem to work for us." He sighed.

"Besides, I have feelings for someone else."

"Who? I haven't seen you date anybody in a while." Sasuke asked curiously.

"It doesn't matter, They don't think of me like that anyway."

"Ni-san!" Sasuke pouted. "Who?"

Itachi opened his mouth, unsure of what to say.

**Knock Knock**

"Sasuke!"

'Saved by a blond baka.' Itachi thought to himself.

"Sasuke!"

"You should go see what he wants." Itachi suggested to Sasuke.

Sasuke just shrugged.

"Whatever."

He walked over to the door and pulled it open.

"What do you what, dobe?" Sasuke asked glaring.**(2)**

"It's boring here sasuke!"

"And what do you want me to do about that?"

"Lets do something." Naruto said pulling Sasuke out of the room by the hand.

"Have fun!" Itachi called as they turned the corner.

Leaning up against the door frame he sighed once again as his words were whispered quietly, almost silently, into the now empty hallway.

"If you love something, set it free; if it comes back it's yours, if it doesn't, it never was."

And the light at the end of the hall flickered and died.

**-------------**

1. Osoreda is the guy in death note that robbed a bank and the one that Raito killed on the bus to spaceland.  
2. Sasuke acts very differently around his brother than he does around other people because he doesn't trust people much anymore.

Read and review! the more reviews I get the faster I update this story and get to the actual plot. And thank you everyone who reviewed the last few chapters.


	9. Let The Games Begin

5162 total hits! So here is the next chapter. This was supposed to be part of a much longer chapter but I realized that that would take too long to finish so I just posted this part instead. you'll probably get the next part of this next week It's not one of the best and it seems that my characters love to contradict themselves. enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.  
Warnings: yaoi and language

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Human Error chapter 9:

Let The Games Begin

"What the fuck!?" was the only thought that went through Sasuke's mind at that moment.

It had started out innocent enough at first, with Naruto dragging him around to explore the building. It was a pretty straight forward set-up and Naruto, after a while of running up and down the stairs, pulling a rather annoyed Sasuke with him, had finally gotten bored with it after finding that it had the exact same layout on all of the floors. It was then he had decided to play childish games like hide and go seek and tag. In which Sasuke usually just stood there and Naruto would make comments like 'You're supposed to hide, Sasuke.' or 'You cant just stand there, Teme!". Finally, after getting fed-up with the actions of the blond baka in front of him, Sasuke fished in his pocket and pulled out a pack of cards.

"Ohhh, cards! Good idea, Sasuke!" Naruto said giving Sasuke a dazzling happy smile that made his stomach do flips.

'What the hell?' why was he having this type of reaction. And because of an idiot, too.

_'Ah, but he's a good looking idiot, you have to admit.' _said a voice in the back of his mind.

'_With the way his golden hair frames his face and falls in front of those ocean blue eyes that yo-'_

'Shut up.' Sasuke told the voice.

Great, now he was hearing voices. Well, his family never was very sane to begin with, too much inbreeding if you asked him. So it really came as no surprise to Sasuke that he was hearing voices.

Sasuke pushed these thoughts out of his mind and just focused on shuffling the playing cards.

He dealt out five cards to each of them and smirked when he saw his cards. A royal flush. He really did have amazing luck.

The blond was smiling mischievously, Sasuke saw as he looked up. He knew what was coming next.

"Hey, Sasuke..." Naruto had an odd glint in his eyes.

"Do you want to bet?"

"Sure." Sasuke said feigning boredom. He was going to make some money today.

Naruto pulled a fifty dollar bill out from his pocket and Sasuke did the same.

"Read 'em and weep." Naruto said showing his cards to Sasuke.

"Straight flush!" he was smiling happily.

"You didn't see that coming did you? I guess now you're wondering why you suggested a game of cards in the first place and- Huh?" Naruto looked at the cards that had been placed in front of his face.

"EHHH! How did you get that. Cheater!"

Sasuke just rolled his eyes and gathered his winnings.

"Wanna play another round?" he asked.

"Of course! And I'm going to win that money that you stole back."

Sasuke smirked once more and throughly shuffled the cards.

"Then let the games begin."

---------

Twelve rounds and sixteen minutes later Naruto was almost ready to start pulling his hair out.

Sasuke had won every game and he was now one hundred twenty seven dollars and fifteen cents, Naruto's life savings, richer and also had a bright pink rabbits foot, and a watch, that both looked like they had seen better days.

"You must be cheating! How else would you have won every time we played." Naruto said throwing his cards into the air and watching them scatter in the narrow, brightly lit hallway.

"Cheating?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"I don't even have to cheat to win against you and besides, it you were the one that proposed we bet on the games anyway."

"Fine then." Naruto stood up and glared murderously at Sasuke.

"I'm going exploring again." he started to walk around where Sasuke was sitting on the floor to get to the elevator but suddenly his feet slipped out from under him, as he slipped on one of the playing cards that he had thrown in his anger. He closed his eyes and braced himself for the feeling of his body colliding with the ground but was surprised when, instead of the hard, lightly carpeted floor, he fell on something warm and soft.

"You should be more careful." Sasuke's voice told him.

"Not everyone is kind enough to catch you when you fall."

Naruto blinked his eyes open and was about to make some scathing comment when their eyes met and he was lost in pools of deep, pitch black onyx only a few centimeters from him. At that moment time seemed to slow down. Why was his heart beating so fast?

He closed the distance between them and the next moment their lips met and unimaginable emotions ran through them. Though, as fast as it began it was all over with just as quickly as Sasuke angrilly pushed Naruto away.

Naruto winced slightly as his body came in contact with the wall.

"What the fuck was that!" Sasuke said glaring as he wiped his lips with his hand.

"I-I..." Naruto looked at the ground and leaned against the wall slightly as he felt that his knees would give out at any moment. His golden hair fell over his face, hiding eyes that were welling up with tears. He had known that he had a crush on the raven haired male in front of him since he had met him the day before yesterday but he had been trying to deny that. Now though, his feelings were hard to ignore. He was backed into a corner and he didn't know what to do. So he did the only thing he could think of. He ran. He really was an idiot, Wasn't he?

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read and review. And a thank you to everyone that rewiewed the previous chapters.


	10. Anytime

sorry this is so late. I have had a very busy month. my Odessey of the Mind team all lost their script for scean four at the same tmie so i had to re-write it from memory and we haven't even started of our back drop for the polar region. I'm on the schools math counts teem and I tied for tenth with my best friend but he won because he had one more question right in the target round. History projects, which are not optional, are due soon and i haven't even started.

The Naruto 2 anime series comes out mid february and I'm excited about that. Has anyone here seen the movie "Moon Child"? It rocks.

oh and i made a few minor changes to chapter three

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Warnings: yaoi, attempted suicide

Parrings: Sasunaru, Implied one-sided Itasasu, and very slight implied Gaara/Neji

ages: Neji 13 in flashback 16 in regular story. Sasuke: 12 in flashback Gaara: 14 in the regular story

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Human Error Chapter ten:

Anytime

His breath was coming in short gasps now and he was tiring quickly. The light yellow walls seemed to close in on him from all sides. He didn't know how long he had been running or even where he was in the building. All he cared about was getting as far as he could from the other boy.

Finally his legs gave out and he collapsed in the middle of the hallway. He pulled himself over to the wall and brought his knees up to his chest. Naruto gazed up at the crystal chandelier that served as the only source of illumination in the hallway as he tried to calm his heavy breathing and stop the tears from flowing from his eyes.

'I really shouldn't have done that.' Naruto thought.

'I really shouldn't have.'

he sighed and curled his head against his knees and pulled his arms up to cover his head in an attempt to muffle the new wave of sobs that wracked his body. It was less what happened today that had made Naruto so upset and more what it had reminded him of. It had brought painful memories back up to the surface of his mind.

No one knew what had happened that day and even Iruka, who would usually arrive before something like this ever had a chance of happening, had arrived well after the bodies had been reduced to a pile of charred remains and the whole room had been filled with smoke and black flames.

Naruto's fist angrily came in contact with the wall. Causing a crack to appear the surface of the wall.

"Damn it! I am such an idiot. He probably hates me now. Why did I have to screw up again!" he growled closing his eyes to try to fight back the tears that were gathering once again. Because Naruto, despite his mask of happiness, was afraid of rejection.

"So you think he think he hates you, eh?" said a voice to Naruto's left.

Naruto's bright blue eyes flew open and he whipped his head around to see a red headed male leaning up against the wall.

Gaara surveyed the scene in front of him with a bored look on his face.

"You're going to have to pay for that, you know?" he said gesturing toward the crack that had been made when Naruto's fist had slammed into the wall.

When Naruto just looked down at the ground Gaara sighed slightly. This was not going to be very easy for him, was it?

"He doesn't hate you." Gaara said sitting down next to Naruto on the floor.

After a few moments with still no response from the blond Gaara continued.

"He's just confused. He's unsure of his feelings for you. He is scared of getting close to people, as cliché as that sounds."

Once again he was met with silence, no, that wasn't right, Gaara's world was never silent and never had been for as long as he could remember.

"How do you know this." 'Did you talk to him?' Naruto continued in his mind. Fearing that if he said too much his voice would break and the tears would flow with more force as old memories bubbled to the surface again and again.

"No, I haven't talked with Sasuke yet. Though I was planning to. No, that's not why I know. I can read minds."

Naruto's eyes widened.

"Wha-?"

"There's no reason to be so surprised." Gaara said cutting him off.

"It's not like you're normal either."

"What do you know about me?" Naruto asked even though he already knew the answer.

"Everything." Gaara whispered.

"Was I right?"

"That is not my decision. But suffering proves you are human and not a monster like one that they make you out to be. When you stop suffering is when you should really start worrying. When you have truly become numb to everything and you no longer feel anything, neither pain nor happiness." Gaara's expression became dark and he was silent for a while before he turned and met Naruto's lonely, pain filled blue eyes with his own pale green eyes.

"Everyone has something that saddens them. Most of them, however, are lucky. There lives run rather smoothly. They blindly believe what they are told, without ever thinking about what those thoughts and beliefs will do to the people they are aimed at. They just going on living their normal lives and keep thinking what they have beliefs that they have held since childhood. The beliefs that destroy lives."

Gaara paused.

"Do you want to hear a story, Naruto-kun?" Gaara asked.

Naruto nodded and Gaara started speaking. All the while wrapping Naruto in his tale of lies, deceit, hatred and at long last happiness.

"About seventeen years ago a man became the leader of a small village, miles away from his country's capital, Suna. The man had always been rather nice on the outside but on the inside he was rotten to the core. He had played the people of the village like a harp, won their support through lies and trickery. The town was small though and soon the man tired of it. He wanted more. He began to extend the borders of his empire. But, no matter how large his empire was it was never enough for him.

Three years after he first came into power in that small village he became the kazekage and inherited an ancient relic, an evil spirit sealed within a brass jar. Even though he was kazekage, he still wanted more. He wanted to have a weapon that he could use to take over the world. when His wife wife was due to give birth to what would be his third child he got a idea. Using the blood of the wife that he had never really loved he bound the spirit to the soul of his son. He gave his normal son fake powers that were stronger than most so that he could never live a normal life. He gave the boy the name Gaara, meaning a self-loving carnage. Because with powers like that the only one that would love the boy would be himself.

The boy grew up hated by everyone in the village. They all knew there was some thing off about him even if there were only a few that knew why. By these few he was referred to as Gaara of the sand waterfall. The boy was never given a last name so he took what was handed to him. His name became Sabaku Gaara. He never wanted to hurt anybody he just wanted to be their friend. But, time and time again, he tried and was pushed away because of something that he couldn't control. He wanted to escape but, even that was imposable. Due to his curse he could not escape through his dreams or through death..."

_A red headed eleven year old looked out through the window at the deep gray sky and the crystal clear raindrops falling from it. He always felt calmer when it rained. The rare desert storms seemed to interfere with his mind reading abilities and he only heard a slightly garbled fuzz from people on these days. And it was only on these days that he allowed himself to cry._

_Gaara hated how people treated him. They thought he was some sort of monster and he had never had any friends because of that fact. He was a monster though. A monster that had killed his own mother and had the power to kill everyone had it not been for the power limiters that stopped his powers from killing him self or anybody else until he was needed as a weapon._

_He rarely went out in the sunlight much but that say he had been restless. He had taken a walk over by the river that marked the border of Suna. He had picked a secluded spot where he could be alone and just gaze at the pale deep water in the river. They found him anyway. Most of the people were afraid of him but the few that weren't just made his life a living hell. Gaara couldn't get mad at them though so he became mad at himself for what they did._

_The rock came hurtling at him but it did not hit. A sheet of sand had come involuntarily and blocked the object._

"_Monster!" one of them cried and they all joined in in the throwing of objects and the name calling._

_And as Gaara ran back to his "home" the sky began to darken and lightening flashed. The rain began._

_So now he was sitting on the windowsill leaning up against the cool glass letting his tears flow. He had no idea how long he had been sitting there when he heard a muffled screaming inside his head. He could scarcely make out the words because of the rain but it seemed like someone was crying for help. Then in a rush he realized something. He pulled himself up and brought a hand up to wipe his eyes and then took of running toward the river. It did not often rain but sometimes when it did the water level in the river would rise and the current would become stronger._

_He recognized the screaming voice in his head as he was running. It was the boy who had called him a monster. Still, even with this realization his pace did not slow. If anything he just ran faster. He had the power to save him and he wasn't going to be a monster and ignore the boys cries._

_When he reached the river. He saw the boy clinging to a small branch of a tree that had been growing in the middle of the now swollen river. The boys friends were trying to help their friend and there were two boys, both slightly older than him self, there that Gaara had never met before. _

_The boys hold on the branch seemed to be loosening and then all of the sudden the boy lost his grip and was sent hurdling down the river._

_Gaara acted quickly and in the the blink of an eye he had the said in the bottom of the river under his control and was using it the lift the boy out of the water and on to the shore. He set the boy down and went over to comfort the shivering child but when he reached out his hand he was met with a glare._

"_You're a monster!" the boy yelled_

"_I would rather have died than have been saved by you!" the boy reached for the knife that he kept at his waist and threw it at Gaara._

_Once again it was blocked by a sheet of sand. For not the first time, Gaara wished that his sand did not protect him because at that moment he just wanted to die. _

_Gaara reached down and picked u the knife. He looked over at the crowd of children and then at the two boys. Surely, even though they had just met him they felt the same disgust that the others felt. He turned and ran toward the cliffs hoping to find peace. Life was so unfair._

_The cliffs soon came in sight. He had once tried to end his life by throwing himself off of the but he could not even take a step beyond the edge because of the talismans that were set up so that he could never go outside of the city. _

_He looked down at the bottom of the cliffs. Then moved as far as he could toward the city's boundaries. If he was going to try to die than he wanted to die as free as he could. Maybe the rain would weaken his powers like it weakened his mind reading. He raised the knife and prepared to stab himself deep in the heart. He brought the knife down in a silver arc but had to drop it when he felt a terrible feeling shoot through his entire body._

_He looked down at his hands and saw them coated in a bright red substance. Blood._

_Gaara turned around and was finally able to get a good view of the two boys. They were beautiful. He had never seen a person that was as beautiful as them in the whole of Suna. One of them had white eyes and the other had glowing red eyes. He felt his heart beat quickening. He had kept his preferences a secret because he didn't want to find another reason for them to hate him. Now though, he found that he couldn't stop staring. After a moment he tore his eyes away._

"_Why did you stop me?" Gaara asked. "It's not like that would have killed me."_

"_You shouldn't even have thoughts of suicide. It doesn't matter if it will kill you or not it's the fact that you had those thoughts in the first place. But geeze!" the white eyed boy said turning to his partner. "You shouldn't have used so much energy in that, Sasuke! Look what you did to the poor boys hands."_

_the realization struck Gaara like a bolt of lightening._

"_Sorry." his friend replied "It was hard to control it that quickly."_

"_You're like me..." he whispered._

"_Yeah we're like you,kid. My name is Neji and this is Sasuke. What's your name?"_

"_Gaara." he said with a smile on his face "Sabaku Gaara."_

_and that was how Gaara met the two who he would soon call the most important people in his life. Hyuga Neji and Uchiha Sasuke ._

"That little boy soon became the kazekage of Suna and with the help of his friends was able to live on and save his country from the financial state that his father had put the country in. He surpassed all expectations and was no longer treated as a monster but with the respect that he had deserved since he had been a child."

Gaara put his hand on Naruto shoulder.

"Even if you feel like you're at the end of your rope you have to try to live on. Sometimes life will just surprise you and you will find the light at the end the tunnel." Gaara smirked and then added

"You might even get to date the cute guy in the end."

Naruto reached out to playfully punch Gaara's shoulder but was met with sand.

"Still?" Naruto asked frowning.

"Yeah, I still can't die..." Gaara trailed off and stared at the ground and then suddenly he lifted his head up.

"You know what I think. I think that you two need each other."

"Eh?" Naruto said slightly surprised.

"How do you even know that Sasuke likes guys?"

"I can read minds remember. But even if I couldn't I don't see how he couldn't be, with his brother how he is."

"What about Itachi-san?" Naruto asked

"Look carefully and you will see it. I can't tell you he would probably kill me if I did." Gaara said calmly.

Then he stood up and started walking away.

"I'm thinking of a plan. I wouldn't talk to Sasuke for a while though, he needs a bit of time to cool down."

When Gaara was at the end of the hallway Naruto whispered, so faintly that he barely heard it.

"Thanks Gaara."

The red head turned and flashed him a rare smile

"Anytime, Naruto-kun. Anytime."

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I don't know when I will be able update next but I have everything planned out. so please read and review


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